1Pick your cars
2Your driving and prices
3What it really costs
Choose at least two cars above to see the comparison.
How fast each car loses value
Share of the price lost by each year of age, from the resale curve used in the totals.
Show year by year (% lost, marginal rate)
Reliability (NHTSA complaints, recalls, investigations)
Scored 0–100 against the same model year. The repair index moves only the unscheduled-repair share (40%) of each car's maintenance cost, once.
Monthly cost, side by side
What this means for you
Total cost of ownership over time
Purchase price after incentives, plus loan interest, fuel or charging, maintenance and other yearly costs. Resale value isn't included here.
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Net cost breakdown
What each car costs you in total over your ownership period, and where the money goes. Net cost is the purchase price plus interest and running costs, minus what you sell it for.
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Yearly running costs
First year, at today's prices.
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What if fuel prices change?
Total cost over your ownership period as the price of one fuel rises or falls, with every other price held where it is. Choose the fuel below. Where lines cross, the cheaper car flips. Electricity isn't affected.
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What if you drive more or less?
Total cost over your ownership period by miles driven per year.
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Before you buy
Sources and method
How the numbers are calculated
- Fuel use comes from EPA city and highway ratings, weighted by your city/highway split (the distance-weighted harmonic mean, as EPA does).
- Electricity use uses EPA's kWh per 100 miles, which is measured at the wall and already includes Level 2 charging losses, so nothing is added for normal home charging. Optional adjustments add only what the label leaves out: extra loss on Level 1 (120 V) charging, a different DC fast-charging efficiency, a cold-climate penalty (automatic 5% in Idaho) and idle drain in kWh/day. Your charging cost blends home and public rates by your home-charging share. Plug-in hybrids get the same adjustments on their electric miles.
- Today's dollars (default): every cost is placed in the month it is paid and discounted at your discount rate (5%/yr default, monthly). Loan payments are cash flows too, so financing is counted fairly against the return your cash could have earned; resale and any loan payoff are discounted from the month you sell. Nominal adds the dollars as paid. Fuel, electricity, maintenance and insurance prices rise by their own yearly rates; repairs also rise as the car ages.
- Ranges: each car's low–high uses the actuary's bands (fuel, electricity, insurance, depreciation speed and price trends together). The headline range is the middle 80% (P10–P90) of 2,000 seeded random scenarios, which also give the chance the cheaper car really is cheaper.
- Depreciation profile: % lost = 1 − Rt (R = value ÷ price); average yearly rate = 1 − Rt1/t; front-load = share of the total loss in year 1 and in years 1–3; half-life = years until the car is worth 50% of new.
- Plug-in hybrids split miles between electricity and gas using EPA's utility factor, which assumes you charge daily. Change it on the car's card if you charge more or less.
- Maintenance uses Argonne National Laboratory's lifetime-average scheduled-maintenance cost per mile for each powertrain. Edit it on each car's card.
- Financing: for a car you pay for monthly, the monthly payment comes from the standard loan formula using your down payment, term and APR. If you enter the payment you were quoted instead, the page works out the APR it implies. In nominal dollars, net cost adds the interest you actually pay while you own the car; in today's dollars the financing cost is the discounted payments less the amount borrowed, so a loan cheaper than your discount rate can save money. If you sell before the loan ends, the remaining balance is settled from the sale.
- Out-the-door cost = price + sales tax (on the price) + fees + home charger (plug-ins) − incentives. Loans finance everything except the charger.
- Net cost = out-the-door cost + loan interest + fuel or charging + maintenance + insurance + registration + other yearly costs − resale value.
- Cost per mile = net cost ÷ miles over the ownership period. Tailpipe CO₂ uses EPA's 8,887 g per gallon of gasoline and 10,180 g per gallon of diesel.
- Net break-even (headline) is when the pricier car's total cost after selling it (cumulative cost minus resale value that year) drops below the other's. Running-cost payback ignores resale: when lower running costs alone have repaid the higher upfront price and any extra interest.
- Insurance: if left blank, estimated from the national average ($1,694 full coverage) times a powertrain factor (EV 1.2), falling partly with the car's value; enter a quote to override. Not included unless you enter them: loan fees and unscheduled repairs (EVs carry a small out-of-warranty battery risk after year 8). Depreciation: if you leave resale blank, it is estimated from 2026 market data (iSeeCars five-year depreciation by powertrain, Argonne's curve shape): after 5 years a gas car keeps about 58%, a hybrid 65%, a plug-in hybrid 53% and an EV 43% of its price; pickups and large SUVs are adjusted. Enter your own figure to override. In Idaho, registration defaults to the state fee ($69 + $140 EV / $75 plug-in hybrid, Idaho Code 49-457) if you leave it blank.